The definitive source for established book collectors or those who would like to start collecting themselves. A place to show off your collection or share tips on finding the best deals online or at your local bookstore, thrift store or flea market.

Feel free to ask questions!

If you are curious about the value of a book you have, try to include a photo, publisher information, copyright date (if any), and a general idea about the condition.

Does anyone here actually have a true collection of rare or interesting books, or is r/BookCollecting just a slightly more specific service than "r/whatsitworth ?

Reddit is an extremely literate (from what i can tell) community. And yet r/rarebooks/ and r/BookCollecting all seem to (mostly) center around people with yardsale finds trying to find out if they have struck it rich.

I have a lot of very 'worthless' (in the monetary sense) old books that I keep around because of interest. I will upload and post pics sometime. I don't know that I would consider myself a collector in the professional sense (or that I'd be taken seriously by other 'collectors') but I enjoy early 20th century books and earlier and sub here to see what is out there.

P.S. -> I would love advice/pointers/tips/lessons on where/how to find rare (antiquarian) books. So far most of my 'collection' has fallen into my lap in pretty roundabout ways.

You know, we might want to take a page from /r/gamecollecting. They have a fantastic sidebar, where they wrote FAQs, definition pages, how-tos (cleaning, start your collection, specific types of collecting, etc.) and lists of dozens of resources. While it's not the same type of material, the concepts of collecting are the same.

I collect books for the most part, but I also collect retro games, and when I needed help with pricing, where to look for something that's rare, or how to clean components, their resources page was amazing.

So what I'm proposing is that we, as a group, write up a bunch of guides for the sidebar. It would be a great project, and I think it would help get more members. Right now, this subreddit tends to be for people who are already familiar with collecting, and I think a guide section might "lower the bar" for new collectors.

The mods would need to add them to the sidebar, but each guide that goes there initially starts as just a post. Usually if the reaction from the community is good, the mods will pop them in the side bar. We'd probably have to work something out with the mods, but I'm sure we could do it if we actually create a legitimate resource.

I'd personally love to see this happen. If we were to take the time to do this, then I'd be glad to put it into the sidebar. I'm sure that everyone is willing to assist. We all share a common interest and I'm sure that we could build an excellent resource.

Maybe we should get a link to Addall up in the side bar. Because a book's over 100 years old, doesn't mean it's worth anything.
I don't really collect myself, but /r/rarebooks is dead, so I suggest we should use this this subreddit to link to auctions and interesting articles, and possibly discuss some of the more interesting finds .

i think the addall link idea is a good one. bookfinder, ABAA books, viaLibri too.

i guess what surprises me so much is that as literate as this place is, and given that some obscure subreddits are extremely active, you'd think a book collecting subreddit would be pretty popular. even r/books is kind of slow

i think more experienced collectors could help out the beginning collectors, and that all of us could benefit some from cross pollination talk.

Lol, my family is banned from touching my rare books. It annoys my girlfriend a lot, but I buy reading copies as well. I hung a picture of Gandalf on the bookshelf once. You know the quote that was on there.

it is not possible to tell someone what the danger is without them thinking YOU are the weird one.

contrary to all rules, i actually live with my bindings (I have them out). out of necessity, i mad a very small discreet sign. instead of "don't touch", which i thought sounded rude, i wrote "please ask before touching". very small, very discreet.

a buddy of mine, father of my son's friend, trundled over making a big show "oh lookie here, lookie at these. are these your special fancy books?" teehee haha isn't it funny and all.

he went to reach for one and saw the sign. picked it the sign and started laughing "oooooh. please don't touch without asking hahaha what the fuck is this" literally knee slapping.

he reached for an innocuous looking book and i said "actually. seriously, i know it's lame and all, but please don't". he says "c'mon, seriously? what's so speical about this thing it's just a book, what could happen?"

i said ""well, feel free, but only if you agree to pay for any repairs if anything happens. for reference, that one there needed its front cover reattached, and it was six hundred dollars just to do that"

he backed away.

he was incredulous. i said "it helps to not think of them as books, but as one or two mortgage payments". (sometimes, when all else fails, you need to be explicit)

in fact, one of the books that is in my collection was only available for sale because the dealer sold it to me after he'd had it repaired. a guest at his house took it off the shelf and dropped it, and the board popped off. "oops. sorry"

no matter how you try to warn someone, you look like a poncy twit. but that's their ignorance showing. not mine. trouble is, it's my book that could get damaged.

This is one of the reasons I've stopped checking this subreddit as often; it seems like almost every single post is someone with an old Bible or a book club edition of a classic novel asking if they're rich.

I sell used and rare books and collect a bit on the side. I'm just here to help anyone with questions. I doubt anyone wants to see my collection of 900 baseball books, but I'll occasionally throw up a giveaway or a picture of a neat book that just sold.

I know what you're saying, but I don't want a discussion of our collections to turn into a "Oh yeah? Well, MY collection is even bigger/more rare/expensive."

What I would like to see is some discussion on what we collect, what we look for. I find it fascinating as well as educational - if I have a better idea of what people are interested in, I can be a better bookseller.